Report: NTT In Talks To Acquire German Data Center Provider E-Shelter

Japan’s NTT Communications is reportedly in talks to acquire German data center service provider e-shelter, Nikkei business daily reported. The price tag is around $830 million, according to a Reuters report that cited an anonymous source.

It would give NTT a robust data center footprint in the German market, the second largest data center market in Europe. E-shelter has an almost singular focus in the market, with eight data centers in Germany. In the Frankfurt region alone, the company operates 650,000 square feet across three data centers. NTT operates data centers globally and has one data center in Frankfurt.

NTT is an international player investing heavily in data centers. The acquisition would provide e-shelter with a parent company capable of funding costly data center expansion plans.

NTT acquired a controlling interest in U.S. provider RagingWire in 2013, doubling NTT’s footprint in the U.S. RagingWire has campuses in Ashburn, Virginia, and Sacramento, California, providing ample room to grow. NTT acquired enterprise IT and network services company Virtela Technology Services in 2013.

In 2010, the company bought South Africa’s Dimension Data for $3.2 billion to boost the data center business.

Consolidation is expected among the European players with heavy footprints in singular markets to compete against those with international footprints.

A map of e-shelter's data center locations (Source: e-shelter)

Frankfurt is the main campus for e-shelter, with room for close to 650,000 square feet of data center and technical space. It consists of five free-standing buildings, the latest built in 2012. The company has a lot of planned growth in Frankfurt, with a planned expansion of close to 200,000 square feet.

Frankfurt 2 is one of the smaller facilities, at 20,000 square feet of data center supported by 3 megawatts. The first stage of Frankfurt 3 is close to 45,000 square feet. The second of a planned three stages started construction last year. The three additional stages combined will provide 190,000 square feet.

The Berlin data center is located in the administrative district of Spandau. The site is 430,000 square feet, with 140,000 square feet of data center space.

Vienna is another opportunity to grow. The first building went under construction last year. The company has a capacity of 20 megawatts in Vienna and is planning 260,000 square feet of gross floor space. Three planned building stages will create roughly 90,000 square feet of data center space.

Munich 1 is close to 22,000 square feet, while Munich 2 is being developed. The company owns a plot close to 200,000 square feet. The first building is 60,000 square feet, the company announcing a first stage last year.

Outside of Germany, the company owns a data center in Zurich, which received LEED Platinum pre-certification.